​How to Do Luminaries In Your Neighborhood

3 Key Steps

1. Build a basic website for free. If you aren’t tech savvy, this might scare you away to be quite honest. Or it might seem like a huge undertaking. It’s really not and it’s well worth the effort. Yes, it takes some time and some learning, but it will save you time in the long run. We use Weebly for our luminary event website. I have created many websites through them and have been very happy with the results!

BENEFITS

Easy to build website and free!

Easily direct neighbors to the website

Connects to other social media platforms making it easy to share links to promote your event

User-friendly interface

Communicate through blog rather than sending out multiple email updates

Easy to update year after year

All pertinent info (budget, how to order, order history, volunteering, donating, etc.) in one central online space

2. Mail postcards to all neighbors to garner interest.This is your most costly step. In our neighborhood, we wanted to target 400 homes. That meant a total cost of approx $250. That’s a lot of money to dish out just to see if there is interest! There are some ways around this, however. You could see if your town is willing to help out with the cost. You could see if any local business are interested in sponsoring your event. If you decide to move forward with your luminary event, you could charge this expense back to neighbors in the cost of the luminaries. Or, as we did in our case, we personally absorbed the cost, considering it a way to give back to our neighborhood.

RULE OF THUMB:Thirty-percent. This was our goal for first-year participation. If you can get thirty-percent of neighbors to commit to participating in your luminary event, then it’s a go! Don’t be surprised if you numbers are lower than you expected. It’s highly unlikely that you will get fifty-percent participation the first year. It is always more difficult to get an event off the ground and running when it’s new.

3. Email detailed event informationWhen you sent our your postcards, it’s a good idea to have neighbors get back to you via email so that you can record their email address. Once you receive all information, it’s time to follow-up via email with all of your event information. This includes things such as time, date, location, cost, how to order, volunteer needs, etc.